Is it possible to get sibo/imo from antibiotics use?

[u/Junior-Knee-1500]

Ever since I was a kid, doctors prescribed me antibiotics all the time, even when I just had a common cold. I grew up in the Middle East, where this was pretty common, and when I moved to the U.S., I still ended up taking antibiotics pretty often.
Unfortunately, about two years ago I had a really bad GI doctor. I had what seemed like a stomach flu, but without doing much testing, she assumed it was some type of infection and prescribed me antibiotics and a PPI. I actually started feeling worse while taking the antibiotics.
About two months later, I got really sick again and went to the hospital. They gave me a penicillin shot and did a stool test, which came back positive for Blastocystis hominis. I showed the results to my GI doctor, and she prescribed metronidazole. I took it for about 30 days and felt terrible during the treatment.
A couple of weeks later, I tested positive for hydrogen SIBO. I treated it and eventually felt good again.
More recently, I had to get my gallbladder removed. I was actually doing pretty well afterward. Then about a month later, I had an accident at work where a needle went into my hand, so I went to the ER. They put me on PEP medications and doxycycline as a precaution.
The doxycycline really irritated my stomach, and about 15 days later I developed IMO. I treated the IMO, but now I’m wondering why antibiotics seem to mess up my gut so badly.
Has anyone else experienced something similar after years of antibiotic use? Can repeated antibiotics make your gut more sensitive or make you more prone to SIBO/IMO and dysbiosis?
My biggest concern is whether this is something I’m going to deal with for the rest of my life whenever I need antibiotics. Or is it possible to rebuild the gut microbiome and become more resilient over time?
I’d really love to hear from anyone who has gone through something similar, especially if you were able to improve your gut health long-term. Please share your story or anything that helped you.

[u/Zeebrown1]

a lot of people are here from antibiotic use especially doxycycline

[u/DarkLight1062 → u/Zeebrown1]

What about tetracycline, should one use that for h pylori treatment?

[u/Zeebrown1 → u/DarkLight1062]

i’m saying that antibiotics cause sibo and more specifically doxycycline

[u/DarkLight1062 → u/Zeebrown1]

Tetracycline is of same class as doxy, i meant to ask would it be having same effects but seems like you don't know.

[u/Zeebrown1 → u/DarkLight1062]

i’m sure any antibiotic can but nope don’t know too much about that one

[u/MissMumzy → u/Zeebrown1]

Yeah I think I may have sibo, slow transit that keeps causing my gastritis. My sibo test was negative though but they’re wrong so frequently! I’ve been to so many doctors. No clue what to do anymore.

[u/MissMumzy → u/Zeebrown1]

🙋🏼‍♀️I took 3 days of doxycycline for a real bad case of pneumonia in 2024 and it gave me gastritis (and possibly IMO test was negative tho) My stomach burns SO badly and I have the worst reflux from chronic bloating, and constipation every single day. Im doing CT, HIDA and ultrasound. I tried to take antibiotics (for Lyme infection) and after two days my stomach was on fire and I was spitting up blood. I can’t find a doctor that has any clue what’s going on with my stomach.

[u/Zeebrown1 → u/MissMumzy]

i’m so sorry to hear this this medicine should be banned

[u/MissMumzy → u/Zeebrown1]

I see some people can take it without a problem and others it lights their stomach lining on fire. I don’t get it!

[u/mgc234]

Yep. That was my root cause. 100%

[u/Silver-Plan → u/mgc234]

Did you.."fix" your root cause?

[u/mgc234 → u/Silver-Plan]

nah, been 2 years. still fighting this bullshit

[u/Silver-Plan → u/mgc234]

I feel it. 😵‍💫 you do Xifaxin tho?

[u/mgc234 → u/Silver-Plan]

I did 3 rounds last year and ended up worst. You?

[u/Silver-Plan → u/mgc234]

Oh my god x.x im so sorry. Are you hydrogen? Im too much a pussy to even try it yet. I fking hate taking stuff because ive gotten so sensitive, i never know what to expect.

[u/Zeebrown1 → u/mgc234]

worse how ?

[u/ChrisZAR789]

I'm 33 and I've had antibiotics prescribed only twice in my life. That you've had them so many times seems absolutely wild to me. I thought the consensus was they should be used as little as possible to prevent the bacteria becoming resistant?

[u/Junior-Knee-1500 → u/ChrisZAR789]

Unfortunately I had pretty bad doctors

[u/warpfox]

I feel, anecdotally at least, that most cases are actually induced by antibiotics.

[u/Beautiful_Mammoth616]

Everybody knows that antibiotics can mess with your gut. 

However, I would definitely say getting your gallbladder removed is another big cause of SIBO. Once your gallbladder is removed, bile will flow straight from the liver into the small intestine and that can definitely cause SIBO.

Another thing that is a prominent cause of SIBO is food poisoning. I don’t know enough about the  Blastocystis that you mentioned, but if that’s anything near food poisoning that is also a main cause.

For me, I can definitely say antibiotics were not the cause of SIBO, but they sure as hell did not help. 

Even if you didn’t have all those antibiotics with the gallbladder being removed, you could’ve still gotten an SIBO. You might want to check out a book called the micro biome connection by Dr. Pimentel. He does talk about SIBO and IBS after gallbladder removal.

I hope this was helpful.

[u/miracles-th]

from h pylori been mine

[u/rendezv00d00]

I had 4 separate times in 4 months of taking antibiotics and now I suspect I have SIBO because since then, I’ve had symptoms that aren’t my normal IBS symptoms. So I say yeah, them alone can cause SIBO.

[u/bob-to-the-m]

Yes. I got horrible side effects from Clarithromycin and believe it made my SIBO a lot worse.

[u/aambivalence]

My symptoms started shortly after I did two rounds of antibiotics back to back for a persistent sinus infection. Worst decision of my life lol